Letters From Cages

It was a cold Friday afternoon as I parked my car into a parking lot near the coffeehouse Adam was going to meet me at again. My sweater’s long sleeves covered most of my hands but it still didn’t make me feel any warmer as I got out of my car and walked through the lot until I entered through the back door. A sudden burst of warmth filled my face as I walked in, and people were getting hot drinks and talking. A very short older man was playing guitar in the corner of the shop quietly. I closed my eyes for a second before walking forward to sit down in a chair in the front of the shop. Adam said he would be running a little bit late when I called him last minute and asked him to come. I told him about the phone call, and told him that I was tired of being let out in the dark about everything. If Carter wasn’t going to help me figure this all out, then I was going to find someone else who would be willing to help.

I just couldn’t grasp onto why Carter wouldn’t just tell me what happened, where he was… what he was doing that night. Maybe the prosecutors were right, maybe every single thing they said was right and he did kill Daniel Cody, and just didn’t have enough guts to admit it to me. But I still couldn’t take that assumption and shrug this whole thing off. I needed to figure this out myself, even if that means finding out myself who exactly lives on Filmot Glen.

I pulled my sweater sleeves down more and ran my fingers through my hair before glancing up. I looked at the somewhat empty streets of downtown. There were colorful leaves falling from the trees onto the ground, which blew violently in the wind, announcing to everyone that Autumn was now here.

I sighed and looked back down, but a person’s face made me jerk my head back upward to the street. Walking down it was the Annabelle girl I had seen at the carnival almost a year ago. Her once long hair was now short and ended right at her chin, but she was still stunningly gorgeous. She had almond shaped eyes and black hair with blonde streaks in her bangs that fell straight across her forehead. She was edgy, gorgeous but undeniably scary looking. She walked past the coffeehouse and I quickly rose from my seat and slowly crept towards the front door, I opened it slowly and looked to my right to see her walking quickly down the sidewalk, her heels clicking with her steps. She turned her head and looked both directions before picking up speed and darting into a nearest alleyway.

I hurriedly exited the coffeehouse and quickly retraced her footsteps down the sidewalk and turned into the alleyway that she entered, but she was nowhere to be found. I walked down the alleyway slowly, making my steps as quiet as possible and finally got towards the end where I peeked my head around a corner. Annabelle was speaking quietly with a tall and skinny man with thick and long dreadlocks. He had a long nose, almost like a hawk’s beak and if he wasn’t wearing such nice clothing, I would have thought he was homeless. They were speaking under hushed whispers until he handed Annabelle something I couldn't determine and she nodded and walked away. The man looked my direction and I gasped and moved behind the wall, hoping he didn’t see me.

After about ten seconds I peeked my head around the corner again to see that the man was gone, and Annabelle was pulling out of a parking space in a small black SUV. As her head was turned, I quickly darted towards my car across the lot and hopped in. I saw in the corner of my eye Adam pulling up in his Volkswagen and parking in a parking space near me. When Annabelle pulled out of the parking lot, I rolled down my window.

“Adam, get in!” I yelled as he was getting out of his car. He looked over at me confusedly before closing his door and jogging towards my car. He got in the passenger’s seat and looked over at me.

“What’s going on?” He asked with a hint of excitement and curiousness in his voice.

“What’s going on is I’m going to find some stuff out for myself. Put your seatbelt on.”

I turned on the ignition and peeled out of the parking lot, knowing that I had lost time and was hoping that I could still find Annabelle’s car. Luckily, she was stopped at a red light only a block away, and I sped up and made sure I was at least two cars behind her.

The light turned green and I began to follow her as she drove east, towards the more rural part of town.

“Who are we following?” Adam asked as I kept my eyes fixed on her black SUV.

“Do you remember when I told you about my encounters with Jerry and his group and one of the encounters was at a carnival?” I asked rhetorically. “Well, the girl that was with him that night is in that car, and I want to find out where she’s going.”

“What if she’s just minding her business and heading home or something?” Adam asked logically. I turned to him and pursed my lips.

“I just saw her speaking to some creepy man at the end of an alleyway, it looked like something suspicious, not just her stopping by and saying hello. And do you realize the direction where we are driving, Adam?” I responded quickly. My words were falling all over each other, I had a knot in my stomach and for some reason my adrenaline was at a peak as Annabelle’s car picked up speed down a sharp windy road.

“Um…” Adam replied. “No, I don’t.”

“We’re driving towards Tier Forest,” I replied. “Daniel Cody’s body was found there. Barely anyone lives up in this area, Adam. She’s coming up here for a reason.”

Annabelle’s SUV skidded around a sharp corner and I tried my best to keep my distance but it was hard to look inconspicuous when I was driving down a road where it was only just the two of our cars. I pulled the visor down trying to conceal my face and told Adam to do the same.

“Do you really think this is such a good idea?” Adam asked. “I mean, I’m all for uncovering the truth and all but this is a little much." He was probably right, but I didn’t want to believe that he was so I kept driving. Suddenly Annabelle turned to the side of the road at a small clearing and I drove past her, trying to make sure it didn’t look like I was following her. Once we got about a half a mile further, I sharply turned the car around, causing Adam to hit his right shoulder against the side of the car. “Gwenith!” He almost shouted.

“I’m sorry,” I replied and drove slowly back down towards the direction where Annabelle was parked. As we drove, I noticed she wasn’t in her car anymore and found another clearing on the opposite end of the road a couple hundred feet away to park. “Let’s go.” I said to Adam. The look on his face was of pure disbelief.

“You’re kidding right?” He replied. “Gwenith, I don’t know what’s gotten into you but I am not going to follow you into some forest after some girl you think has something to do with Daniel’s murder. This is just getting out of hand.”

“Well, I guess you can stay in the car then,” I replied. I didn’t know what was getting into me either, I was never this sure of myself, but all I knew was that Annabelle wasn’t just up here for the joy of it, she was doing something and I wanted to find out what more than anything.

I turned and got out of my car and Adam sighed angrily before grabbing my keys out of the ignition and followed me.

We didn’t say anything to each other as we walked down the side of the road and finally got to Annabelle’s car. I looked inside of it and there was absolutely nothing inside. No gum wrappers, CDs, a cell phone, possibly some coins, nothing. It looked as if she barely ever drove it. I turned to Adam and motioned for him to follow me and we both retreated into the forest. I looked down and saw shoe imprints in the dirt and leaves and began to track Annabelle’s footsteps. We continued to track her for about five minutes when Adam grabbed my arm.

“Gwenith, this is ridiculous. Let’s just go back,” He stated. “You don’t have to be Nancy Drew right now, we’ll figure out a less sketchy way to find out some information, because I honestly don't think-"

“Shh!” I hushed. I heard a twig crack and spun around behind me but no one was there. Another twig snapped and it sounded like it was coming from behind Adam, but yet nothing was there. Adam and I stayed completely still, glancing around. The tall trees now began to loom over us in a haunting way and everything fell completely silent. All that could be heard was the sound of our heavy breathing.

Suddenly, some bushes began to move to the left of us and I instinctively grabbed Adam’s hand. He stood in front of me and we slowly stepped backwards as the movement in the bushes started to get louder, and closer to us. My heart pounded in fear, wondering who was going to be coming out of those bushes and what exactly they'd do to us. I held my breath as I saw a figure come out of the shrubbery.

“Gwenith?”

None other than Piper Nguyen stepped out of the bushes with a backpack in her hand and a surprised look on her face. Her hair was pulled back into a tight pony tail and her eyes were widened at the sight of us.

“What are you doing here?” She asked.

“Piper?” I asked back, stepping from behind Adam. I let go of his hand and walked towards her. “I could be asking you the same question.”

“My dad and I always camp up here before I go back to school in the fall,” She replied. “We were hiking until I lost track of him, he always gets so carried away.” She added with a laugh. “What a small world! I mean, running into you at a clothing store I’d understand, but not a forest!” She then giggled and stepped forward to envelop me into a hug. I awkwardly placed a hand on her back before stepping away. She turned towards Adam. “Long time no see, Adam! Haven’t seen your face since high school! So what exactly are you two doing here?”

“We were just…” Adam stammered.

“We were hiking as well,” I quickly finished for him. Piper looked down at our clothes and shoes and raised an eyebrow and that’s when I remembered that Adam and I weren’t quite dressed for a hike in my sandals and his regular tennis shoes.

“We decided to do it last minute,” Adam queued.

“Oh, okay..” Piper replied hesitantly. “I wouldn’t think you’d want to be around here Gwenith, ever since, well, you know.”

“Yeah, it was really just a last minute thing,” I responded.

“Well hey, I’ve got to get back to trying to locate my father, but if you guys ever want to get together and catch up, just let me know okay! Bye!” Piper said perkily. She then smiled and adjusted the backpack on her back and walked further through the trees of the forest until we couldn’t see her any longer. Adam turned to me and shook his head.

“Let’s never do this again,” He muttered and pulled me out of the forest and back towards the clearing where Annabelle had parked her car, but when we got there, the car was gone. “Wait, what? How could she have possibly made it back in this direction towards her car without us noticing?”

I ignored Adam’s questions as I stared at the ground, where a small neatly folded paper was laying where her car was once parked. I walked towards it, picked it up, and unfolded it and what it said made my stomach drop.

Oh Gwenith,
You know it’s not polite to follow.